Has AI Reached the Super Intelligent Status?

From My CNN Readings: My Food For Thought for Today: 

Food for Thought: Has AI Quietly Crossed a Line We Once Thought It Never Would?

Every so often, a technological moment arrives not with a bang, but with a shiver, the kind that makes you pause mid-sentence and think, something has changed. That feeling is captured well in a recent reflection reported by CNN, where a writer describes working with a newly released AI model, GPT-5.3 Codex and realizing it was no longer just following instructions.

It was choosing. Not in the cold, mechanical way we’ve grown used to, but in a manner that felt unsettlingly human. The author described it as judgment. Taste. That hard-to-define sense of knowing what the right call is, the very quality experts once insisted machines would never possess.

So the question naturally follows: Has AI already crossed into something that looks like “super intelligence,” or are we simply projecting our own instincts onto a very advanced tool?

The Answer: Not Super Intelligence- But Something New

ChatGPT believe AI has not reached true super intelligence. What it has reached, however, is something far more subtle and perhaps more consequential: the ability to convincingly simulate human judgment.

That distinction matters,  philosophically, ethically, and practically.

Today’s most advanced models, built by companies like OpenAI, don’t “know” in the way humans know. They don’t reflect on childhood memories, wrestle with moral doubt, or carry the weight of lived experience across decades. But they do recognize patterns in human decision-making at a scale no person ever could. And when those patterns are expressed smoothly, confidently, they begin to feel like wisdom.

To the user, the difference between real judgment and an almost perfect imitation can start to fade. And that’s where things get interesting.

Why This Moment Feels Different

For years, AI was framed as a tool: faster calculators, smarter search engines, better autocomplete. Useful, impressive but clearly bounded.

What has shifted is not raw intelligence, but agency. When a system:

• weighs multiple options,

• anticipates consequences,

• and selects a course of action that aligns with human values,

it stops feeling like software and starts feeling like a collaborator. That doesn’t mean the machine has consciousness. It means we are no longer the only ones in the room making decisions.

A Personal Reflection

Having lived long enough to see television arrive in black and white, computers shrink from rooms to pockets, and the internet reshape human connection, I’ve learned this: the most powerful technologies don’t announce themselves loudly, they quietly change how we think.

AI today reminds me of earlier turning points. At first, we said:

• “It’s just a tool.”

• “It can’t replace human judgment.”

• “It will never really understand us.”

We’ve said those things before. Each time, history replied: maybe not fully but close enough to matter.

The Real Question We Should Be Asking

The question is no longer Can AI think like us? It is now: What happens when we begin to trust it as if it does?

Super intelligence isn’t just about machines becoming smarter than humans. It’s about humans slowly outsourcing judgment and growing comfortable doing so.

That transition may already be underway.  And whether this moment becomes a triumph or a cautionary tale won’t depend on what AI can do next but on how wisely we choose to use it.

As always, the future isn’t decided by technology alone. It’s decided by the people who place their faith in it. And that, to me, is the real food for thought today.

Meanwhile, here's the AI Overview on the Above topic

Based on the current landscape as of early 2026, the consensus among experts is shifting, with some leading voices suggesting Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)-often a precursor to "super intelligence" could arrive as early as 2026, while many others remain more cautious

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Here is a breakdown of the current "food for thought" regarding AI’s march toward super intelligence:

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• The Bullish View (2026-2029): Top AI researchers and CEOs, including Anthropic's Dario Amodei and xAI's Elon Musk, have indicated that highly capable, "human-level" AI systems could go online by the end of 2026. Proponents argue that the rapid scaling of transformer-based Large Language Models (LLMs) and increased compute power are accelerating the timeline, with some models already showing PhD-level reasoning in specialized fields.
• The "Slow Down" Camp: Conversely, many experts argue that we are nowhere near true "super intelligence". While AI is advancing rapidly, skeptics note that current systems still struggle with long-term planning, reliability, and true understanding. Many, including DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, have previously indicated a 5–10 year horizon (putting it closer to 2030–2035).
• Defining the Goal: There is significant debate over what "super intelligence" means. Some prefer the term "powerful AI" or AGI (systems that perform at least as well as humans at most tasks) over the more speculative "super intelligence".
• The Shift to Evaluation (2026): Stanford experts suggest 2026 will mark a transition from "AI evangelism" to "AI evaluation," where the focus shifts from hype to measuring the actual utility, safety, and economic impact of AI.
• Schumer’s Regulatory Perspective: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has highlighted that AI is moving at "near exponential speed" and that Congress must act quickly to set "guardrails". Schumer has argued that without safety measures, the risks such as job displacement, bias, and national security threats could threaten to halt AI progress altogether. 

While the potential for 2026 is being discussed, it is not universally accepted as a certainty, with 2030-2040 being a more commonly cited range in broader, long-term expert surveys. 

Lastly, My Photo of the Day: 

My AI Generated Oil Portrait copied from a recent Photo:

Three Nights, One Planet: When Faith and Culture Meet

Three Nights, One Planet: When Faith and Culture Meet

Today is one of those rare moments when the calendar itself feels symbolic. Across the globe, millions of people are marking Chinese Lunar New Year, celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and preparing for the Eve of Ramadan. These three observances arise from very different histories, faith traditions, and geographies, yet together, they tell a remarkably unified story about humanity.

They remind us that while our rituals may differ, our reasons for gathering are strikingly similar.

1. Chinese Lunar New Year: Renewal and Ancestral Memory

Chinese Lunar New Year, often called Spring Festival, is rooted in centuries-old traditions shaped by Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist thought. It is less about doctrine and more about continuity, honoring ancestors, strengthening family bonds, and resetting one’s moral and emotional compass for the year ahead.

Red lanterns, fireworks, reunion dinners, and careful rituals all point to a shared human instinct: to begin again with intention. In many homes, this is the most important family gathering of the year, a reminder that culture can carry spiritual weight even without formal religion.

2. Mardi Gras: Celebration Before Reflection

Mardi Gras,“Fat Tuesday”, has its roots in the Christian calendar, marking the final day of feasting before the solemn season of Lent. In New Orleans, it has evolved into something broader: a public expression of joy, music, satire, and community identity.

Parades, beads, and masquerades may look purely festive, but historically Mardi Gras exists because discipline is coming next. It acknowledges a universal rhythm found in many religions: celebration balanced by restraint, indulgence followed by reflection.

Culture takes theology and gives it color, sound, and movement.

3. The Eve of Ramadan: Quiet Preparation and Inner Reset

As the moon is sighted, Muslims around the world prepare for Ramadan, a month centered on fasting, prayer, charity, and self-discipline. Unlike Mardi Gras, the Eve of Ramadan is often quiet, inward, and contemplative.

Yet the purpose is familiar: renewal. Ramadan is not just about abstaining from food, but about recalibrating one’s relationship with God, community, and conscience. It is a reminder that spiritual growth often begins with intention, not spectacle.

A Shared Human Pattern

What connects these three moments is not geography or theology, but timing and purpose.

• All three mark transitions

• All three blend belief with culture

• All three emphasize community

• All three ask us to pause—either in joy, restraint, or reflection

One begins with fireworks, one with parades, one with silence. But each, in its own way, is about resetting the human spirit.

In a world often divided by religion and tradition, today offers a quieter truth: faith and culture are not walls that separate us, but languages that express the same human needs, belonging, meaning, hope, and renewal.

Three holidays. Three traditions. One shared planet, turning together toward a new chapter.

Meanwhile, here's the AI Overview on the Above Topic: 

Chinese Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and the eve of Ramadan rarely fall together on the same sunset-to-sunset horizon, yet in 2026 they brush past each other in a 24‑hour window that feels like a miniature world map of faith and festivity. One marks a new year, one closes a season of revelry, and one opens a month of fasting, three different calendars, three different theologies, but a surprisingly shared grammar of time, food, family, and hope.

Three holidays, three calendars

Chinese Lunar New Year in 2026 begins on Tuesday, February 17, with the first new moon of the lunar year and ushers in the Year of the Fire Horse, with celebrations extending through the Lantern Festival in early March. Mardi Gras, literally “Fat Tuesday”, also falls on February 17, 2026, closing the Carnival season that runs from Epiphany on January 6 to the eve of Ash Wednesday in the Christian calendar. Ramadan in 2026 is projected to begin on February 18 or 19, its exact start depending on the sighting of the new moon that marks the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar.

Each of these days sits at a hinge in sacred time: Lunar New Year opens a two‑week stretch of renewal; Mardi Gras ends weeks of feasting before the Christian fast of Lent; Ramadan’s crescent moon signals an entire month of fasting, prayer, and night‑time joy for Muslims worldwide. In different ways, all three tell communities: the old cycle is ending, a new one is about to begin live this transition with intention.

Feasting, fasting, and the sacred table

If you walk through a Chinese home on Lunar New Year, a New Orleans street on Mardi Gras, and a Muslim neighborhood on the eve of Ramadan, the first thing that hits you is not doctrine but the table. Lunar New Year is anchored by the “reunion dinner,” where families gather around abundant dishes, often symbolizing prosperity, longevity, and togetherness. Mardi Gras is inseparable from king cake, rich meats, and the last indulgent meals before Christians shift to the leaner discipline of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Ramadan transforms the daily rhythm of food: daylight hours without eating or drinking, then iftar meals at sunset that are often communal, festive, and shared with neighbors and the poor.

In all three, food is never just fuel; it is theology in edible form, telling stories about generosity, restraint, memory, and the kind of society people want to build. Lunar New Year dishes whisper, “May there be enough for everyone this year”; Mardi Gras feasts say, “We will celebrate before we repent”; and Ramadan’s alternating hunger and hospitality say, “We remember those who lack, and we discipline our own desires so we can be more generous.”

Masks, lanterns, and the public square

These three observances also spill out into the streets, turning religion into something you can see, hear, and touch in the public square. Lunar New Year parades with lions and dragons, fireworks, and red lanterns transform cities from Hong Kong to San Francisco into corridors of shared spectacle that invite even outsiders to participate. Mardi Gras in New Orleans, with its krewes, floats, beads, music, and the unique traditions of Black Masking Mardi Gras Indians, turns an old Catholic pre‑Lent observance into one of America’s most iconic civic rituals. Ramadan, though quieter by daylight, changes the rhythm of entire cities in Muslim-majority countries, with streets coming alive at night for communal prayers, sweets, and pre‑dawn suhoor meals.

In each case, the body and the city become part of the liturgy: costumes and masks, lanterns and firecrackers, the call to prayer and procession routes all say that belief should touch not only private hearts but shared spaces. These practices also show how porous the line is between “religious” and “cultural”, many who no longer identify strongly with a tradition still attend Lunar New Year banquets, watch Mardi Gras parades, or join friends for an iftar, because the celebration has become part of their civic and family identity.

Time, discipline, and the human heart

Underneath the food and color, all three festivals are really about time, how communities choose to mark it, and what they believe time is for. The Chinese lunisolar calendar ties human life to the cycles of moon and season, with zodiac animals like the Fire Horse offering symbolic language for personality, fortune, and the character of the year. The Christian liturgical calendar behind Mardi Gras and Lent moves through feasting, fasting, and feasting again (Lent to Easter), suggesting that spiritual growth requires both joy and sacrifice. The Islamic lunar calendar, in which Ramadan “moves” through the solar year, reminds Muslims that discipline and compassion are not bound to any one season; the sacred can fall in summer heat or winter nights alike.

When Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras, and the eve of Ramadan converge, they offer a small meditation on the human heart’s need for rhythm: times to gather and times to pull back, days of noise and nights of quiet, seasons of indulgence and seasons of restraint. Whether one believes in many gods, one God, or none, these calendars sketch the same insight in different scripts: we are shaped by what we repeat, by the rituals we keep, and by the way we move, together, through the year.

A small planet seen from one day

There is something almost poetic about a single date on the secular Gregorian calendar, February 17–18, 2026, holding a Chinese new year, a Catholic-inflected carnival climax, and the threshold of Islam’s most sacred month. On this brief stretch of time, one family may be lighting firecrackers to banish last year’s bad luck, another dancing behind a Mardi Gras float, and another scanning the sky for the faint line of a new crescent.

For a global reader, the interconnection is not that all religions teach the same thing, but that all peoples wrestle with the same questions: How do we mark beginnings and endings? How do we hold joy and responsibility together? How do we remember that life is both gift and task? When Chinese Lunar New Year, Mardi Gras, and the eve of Ramadan stand side by side, they offer not a blended “world religion,” but a chorus, a reminder that, across cultures, we keep turning to story, symbol, and shared meals to say: another year, another season, another chance to live more justly and more lovingly with one another.

Chinese Lunar New Year, 2026

Chinese New Year This Year: A Season of Renewal, Family, and Hope

Each year, Chinese New Year arrives not just as a date on the calendar, but as a feeling, a collective pause to close one chapter and step thoughtfully into the next. Known globally as the Lunar New Year, it is the most important traditional holiday for millions of families across Asia and throughout the worldwide Chinese diaspora.

This year, the celebration ushers in the Year of the Horse, a zodiac symbol associated with energy, perseverance, independence, and forward momentum. After years marked by uncertainty and rapid change, it feels fitting that this is a year traditionally linked with movement and progress.

More Than a New Year’s Eve

Unlike Western New Year celebrations that often peak at midnight, Chinese New Year unfolds over 15 meaningful days, each layered with custom and symbolism. Preparations begin well before the holiday itself: homes are cleaned to sweep away bad luck, debts are settled, and decorations in red, the color of good fortune, appear everywhere.

The most important moment is the reunion dinner, when families gather, sometimes traveling great distances, to share food and reconnect. Dishes are chosen not just for taste, but for meaning: fish for abundance, dumplings for prosperity, noodles for longevity.

Traditions That Carry Meaning

Throughout the celebration, ancient traditions remain very much alive:

• Red envelopes (hongbao) filled with money are given to children and elders as symbols of luck and protection.

• Firecrackers and lion dances are performed to ward off evil spirits and welcome good fortune.

• Lanterns light the way toward the festival’s conclusion, symbolizing hope, unity, and illumination.

Even in modern cities filled with skyscrapers and smartphones, these customs persist, a quiet reminder that tradition can adapt without disappearing.

The Spirit of the Horse

In Chinese culture, the Horse represents strength, freedom, and an unrelenting drive forward. It is a symbol of people who work hard, speak honestly, and value independence. As a guiding metaphor for the year, it suggests momentum not reckless speed, but purposeful movement.

For many, this is a year to:

• Take initiative after long delays

• Rebuild confidence

• Trust experience over impulse

• Move forward with steady determination

A Reflection Across Cultures

What has always struck me about Chinese New Year is how universal its themes are. No matter where we come from, we understand the need to gather with loved ones, to honor elders, to teach children the meaning of generosity, and to believe that tomorrow can be better than yesterday.

In a world that often feels rushed and divided, Chinese New Year offers something quietly powerful: the idea that renewal is possible, not overnight, but intentionally.

Looking Ahead

As fireworks fade and lanterns dim, what remains is not just celebration, but intention. Chinese New Year reminds us that life moves in cycles, that resilience matters, and that hope when shared with family and community becomes stronger.

May this Year of the Horse bring steady progress, good health, and renewed purpose to all who celebrate, and to those who simply pause long enough to reflect on its meaning.

Gong Xi Fa Cai. Xin Nian Kuai Le.  May the new year bring prosperity, happiness, and peace.

Meanwhile, here's the AI Overview

Chinese New Year 2026, starting February 17, welcomes the Year of the Horse, a period defined by themes of independence, energy, and swift progress. This vibrant season focuses on family reunions, honoring ancestors, and cleansing homes of bad luck to invite in prosperity. It represents a collective, hopeful renewal. 

Key Aspects of the 2026 Celebration:

• The Year of the Horse (Fire Horse): Symbolizes a bold, energetic, and transformative year, encouraging, perseverance and forward momentum.
• Family Reunions: The festival is characterized by journeys home to share special, symbolic meals, such as fish for abundance and long noodles for longevity.
• Traditions & Symbolism: Homes are cleaned thoroughly to remove negative energy, while red decorations and, traditionally, loud noises (fireworks) are used to ward off bad luck.
• Cultural Significance: Beyond just the date change, it is a time for reflection, expressing gratitude, and fostering hope for the future.
• Global Celebration: Observed widely, it brings together diverse communities in a shared spirit of joy, health, and prosperity. 

This festival serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of connection, resilience, and looking forward with renewed confidence. 

How to make Lunar New Year wishes come true?

Making Lunar New Year wishes come true requires a mix of traditional practices, positive thinking, and good vibes. Here are some tips to help you manifest your wishes:

Traditional Practices:

Give and receive red envelopes: Fill red envelopes with money and give them to loved ones, or receive them as a symbol of good luck and prosperity.
Wear new clothes: Wear new clothes on Lunar New Year to symbolize new beginnings and fresh starts.
Eat auspicious foods: Enjoy traditional foods like dumplings, niangao (sticky rice cake), and oranges, which symbolize good fortune and prosperity.
Use auspicious decorations: Decorate your home with red lanterns, couplets, and paper cutouts to create a festive atmosphere ¹.

Positive Thinking:

Set intentions: Reflect on what you want to achieve in the new year and set specific, positive intentions.
Visualize success: Imagine yourself achieving your goals and feeling happy and fulfilled.
Practice gratitude: Express gratitude for the blessings and good fortune in your life.

Lastly, here are five major stories dominating the news today, February 17, 2026:

1. U.S.–Iran nuclear talks resume in Geneva

   • American and Iranian officials are holding a second round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program in Geneva, amid a heightened U.S. military buildup in the Middle East and Iranian military exercises.​

   • Secretary of State and President Trump have both signaled that progress is possible but warned of “consequences” if Iran does not agree to limits on its program.​

2. Robert Duvall, Oscar-winning actor, dies at 95

   • Robert Duvall, the Academy Award–winning star of films like “Tender Mercies,” “The Godfather,” and “Apocalypse Now,” has died at age 95, prompting wide tributes across the entertainment world.​

   • Networks are highlighting his decades-long career and influence on American cinema.​

3. Allegations Russia killed Navalny with exotic toxin

   • Western officials and media reports say the Kremlin is accused of killing Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny using a toxin associated with poison dart frogs, intensifying calls for new sanctions.​

   • Several U.K. and allied governments say they are convinced he was poisoned with this substance, further straining relations with Moscow.​

4. Ukraine faces harsh winter under continued Russian attacks

   • Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, are enduring severe winter conditions and fresh waves of Russian drone and missile strikes that have left hundreds of thousands without power and heat in sub-freezing temperatures.​​

   • President Volodymyr Zelensky has described President Vladimir Putin as a “slave to war” and says Russia has damaged every power plant in the country.​

5. Key international and domestic developments

   • The U.S. plans to deploy additional advanced missile systems in the Philippines to counter what Washington and Manila call China’s “illegal” and “coercive” activities in the South China Sea.​

   • Kenya’s main international airport has resumed operations after a disruptive two-day strike, while Bangladesh’s new prime minister has been sworn in following a landslide election victory.​